The Great Idaho Land Grab & Tenant Farming

This isn’t to say Idaho is headed the direction of Ireland in the years before the Potato Famine

As he explained nobody was making it anymore. With all the concerns in Idaho about the federal government owning two thirds of the land a new trend is private ownership of massive tracts of the state. A Texas family has been buying acreage by the tens of thousands in Idaho and Montana. Sportsmen fear they’ll lose access to hunting and fishing grounds.

According to the Washington Post the Great Recession drove the move into land as an investment. When other markets tanked a decade ago the price of land barely budged.

This isn’t to say Idaho is headed the direction of Ireland in the years before the Potato Famine. Keep in mind legislators are swayed by lobbyists and campaign cash. Sportsmen have some powerful allies in Boise, even if family owned farms are losing some clout against the big players.

This could be the great story of the coming decade as more federal land is returned to the state and then the battle for ownership of private property intensifies.